About the Demystifying Prayer Project

Thank you for finding and reading this blog. This blog seeks to be an inside look at my prayer journal as I talk with God through my blogging and writing. I’ll be blogging once a week for the next 30 weeks. Now I do talk to God more often than once a week, but not all of my written prayers are posted online, at least I’m not ready to do that at this time.

I will be writing and blogging in my heartfelt fashion, using my honest words as I think them in my mind and feel them in my heart, without Christian jargon. Minimal use of Christian jargon, anyways, though occasionally I will have to refer to spiritual terms in order to connect with the intangible metaphysical realities that I believe to be true by faith. I’ve discovered that by using my own words in talking with God, that, this has helped me to be more engaged in prayer. And that’s a good thing. I’m finding that it’s boosted my spiritual life to converge prayer and writing and talking. Along the way, this will be a further discovery of my prayer language.

I’ve discovered that by using my own words in talking with God, that, this has helped me to be more focused and more engaged in prayer. And that’s a good thing. I’m finding that it’s boosted my spiritual life to converge prayer and writing and talking. Along the way, this has helped me further in discovering an developing my prayer language.

Praying is Writing and Writing is Praying

I’m approaching this holy experiment (akin to the idea of holy discontent) as an exercise in praying without ceasing. So the words I use in my writing is not just writing, it is written with an attitude of prayer, with a conscious awareness that I am writing in the presence of God. I am praying these words to God even as I write to share with you. I hope this makes some sense to you, or at least, some of you. I’m praying that this prayer blog will help its readers to develop their prayer life in a way that better engages their heart’s desires by talking to God in their own words.

But I also realize that I’m not only writing my words to God as a prayer. I’m making these blog posts so they’re available to readers. This means that sometimes I will be writing and talking to the readers as the audience, and when I do that, it’s no longer a prayer to God per se. When I think about this from the reader’s perspective, I am anticipating this can be quite confusing when I shift from addressing God in the 2nd person, towards addressing the readers to explain a few things along the way. I haven’t figured out how to resolve this yet.

I hope this makes some sense to you, or at least, some of you. I’m praying that this prayer blog will help its readers to develop their prayer life in a way that better engages their heart’s desires by talking to God in their own words.

Being Translated

In other words, my personal prayer-talk language will resemble the everyday language that you’d find in the likes of a personal diary or a personal blog. I want these words to be more accessible and understandable to people of any faith or spirituality or even lack thereof. I don’t think people need to use fancy theological words with the “thees” and “thous” to communicate with God in prayer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I believe God will hear the heart behind the words just the same. Prayer is more than the literal words I use, it is the heart behind the words I use, yes?

Though I will not be explicitly writing the name of the triune God of Christianity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—He is the one God in three persons that I am praying to as I write out my thoughts and feelings. The saints and believers from the past 2,000 years and more have written great books and teachings on prayer, far more in-depth and more eloquently and perhaps more powerfully. Those words of prayers are very rich and meaningful to those who profess to be Christians and Christ-followers. But if those words are not understandable by some readers, they’re not helpful to those readers.

In conclusion, I am writing this blog using ordinary plain English words that I hope will be meaningful to normal everyday people in the early 21st century, regardless of their faith background. I hope this blog motivates and inspires the readers to talk with God, or the higher power as best as they can understand, more freely, unhindered, and more often. I hope that this blog will bring healing, hope, and help as we learn to communicate with the Divine.